2012-03-20

I just discovered an old notebook from the 1960s, probably my first collection of notes on constructed languages other than Esperanto. The first section begins with a photocopy of Appendix II: A Tentative List of Artificial Language Projects, from Mario Pei's One Language for the World, followed by my handwritten list of 145 projects mentioned in the book, dated 24 June 1969. I compiled a list of 20 Latin-based projects, followed by a varied list of 31 projects. Then I made a list of philosophical a priori language projects: Dalgarno, Wilkins, Leibniz, Lodwick, Beck, Gibson's Code, Perio. The last two are not from that era. The next list includes samples: Langue Universelle et Analytique (E. Vidal, 1844), (Delmore, 1795), (C. Letellier, 1852), (Sotos Ochando, 1852/5), Timerio (Tiemer, 1921), Zahlensprache (Ferdinand Hilbe, 1901), (Dalgarno, 1661), (Wilkins, 1668). In addition to Pei, sources include Drezen, Monnerot-Dumaine, and Pankhurst. I've got a couple pages apiece on Suma (Dr. Barnett Russell, 1957) and Solresol. Then there is another list with details of 42 projects. Then I have a page listing the scanty details of the two projects of reformed Hebrew: Pasilingua Hebraica and Lasonebr. Then there are separate descriptions of 1-3 pages apiece of Idiom Neutral, Occidental (both stamped 12 July 1969), Romanal (stamped 14 & 19 July 1969), Volapuk, and Interlingua (new).

The next, thick section is on Neo, from A. Alfandari's Rapid Method of Neo, followed by another section, on Ro, from Alphabet of Ideas or Dictionary of Ro, The World Language by Rev. Edward Powell Foster (Waverly, WV, 1919, 1928), stamped 18 July 1969. (I think Ro was not discussed by Okrent, oddly, since it gained a fair amount of attention in its day.)

The next section consists of extensive notes from E. Drezen's Historio de la Mondolingvo, going as far as Spokil (1889-1904). There is a section on Mario Pei's One Language for the World; it looks like all these notes were copied elsewhere. The next section consists of a few photocopied pages from E. Sylvia Pankhurst's Delphos, The Future of International Language (London, 1927), some pages of which can be found in other sections. The final section is labeled "Superfluous or Duplicate Notes": the only notes there are on Solresol.

Now back in those days conlangs were not "conlangs", as they were not considered to be languages created only as hobbies or for literary/fantasy purposes (with the exception of Tolkein's Elvish and Dwarvish), even though this subject matter was a hobby for many. This whole series of language projects fit the first two eras of artificial language creation: the philosophical languages associated with the scientific revolution, and the international auxiliary languages (of which Esperanto is the most successful). I read all the major surveys which could be found then (in English, plus Monnerot-Dumaine's book in French). In addition I investigated specific projects for which there were separate books, ranging from Novial to Babm. I'm guessing that much of this material has been deaccessioned from the main Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, which was a treasure trove of this old and obscure material (and with some old and rare Esperanto publications as well). This notebook is not all I have, but it was a major manifestation of the way I organized my notes into three-ring notebooks at the time: this one was designated "E1".

What was once an adolescent hobby for a handful of male nerds has mutated and proliferated into a socially acknowledged phenomenon with an entirely different orientation, i.e. the era of conlangs. How different the world is in so many ways from the world at large and my small world of 1969.

“This classic utopian and dystopian novel can now garner its rightful, essential place in its genre for readers in the wider world. A modern-day Gulliver is caught between the equally unacceptable hyperrationalism of the Hins and the insane irrationalism of the Behins. In both encounters, Gulliver proves incapable of perceiving the irrationality of his own society. Confronting the prospect of unlimited technological capability and our consequent alienation from natural life, Szathmári takes us on a voyage to a futuristic, transhumanist society. In so doing he suggests that we face two alternatives: to drown in our contradictions or eliminate them by eliminating ourselves. Whether or not we agree, this must-read novel challenges us at the most fundamental philosophical level.”

Noto en la angla: Corvina Press published an English translation of this landmark Esperanto and Hungarian novel in 1975, but the Hungarian state publisher's offerings were not readily available in the USA. An improved version of this translation is coming out soon from New Europe Books, and so at last this overlooked masterpiece of utopian/dystopian literature will be readily available to the English-language reading world.

Note that the actor who plays both the main character and Zamenhof says that he is most moved when he recites Zamenhof's lines saying that Esperanto was worth creating even though the Nazis killed his whole family. I think I'm going to be verklempt all over again.

2012-03-04

Zamenhof is a family of five fonts that can be used singly or in
combination to create a variety of bold, yet elegant, display styles.
Inspired by Russian hand-lettering that appears to have been based on
Jakob Erbar’s Phosphor, Zamenhof is essentially a Latin interpretation
(with Cyrillic and Greek) of a Cyrillic interpretation of a Latin type
design, with many changes along the way. (For example, all the
Latin-only letters are quite different between the two designs: D, F, G,
J, K, N, Q, R, S, U, V, W, Y, Z.) More…

The Inline and Inverse styles of Zamenhof are the basic
fonts and can be used effectively on their own. The Plain and Outline
fonts — which I recommend using only in combination with the main
designs — were created specifically to be combined with Inline and
Inverse, as underlay and overlay layers, respectively. (You will need an
application that supports layers, such as Adobe InDesign or Photoshop.)

Zamenhof supports most European languages as well as modern
Greek, and of course, Russian and other languages that use the Cyrillic
alphabet. Needless to say, as Zamenhof is named after the father of Esperanto, it also supports Esperanto (as do all fonts from CastleType).

I have no investment in steampunk as a lifestyle/subculture
or as a literary/artistic genre, but I do think it is a significant phenomenon
and symptomatic of our time. It is the futurism of the past, and that it should
surface as a recognizable phenomenon and be named in the present is probably
not accidental. (Of course there were manifestations of steampunk long before
it became a category, but I’m referring to its emergence as a conscious
movement.) Why now the futurism of the past?

The
fantasy future of unlimited possibilities coexists, even as it did a century
ago, with the fantasy of a terminal disaster much closer to realization. The
contours of futurism have already been mapped out. Not only do we live in an alleged postmodern age, but we live in
a combinatorial age, and a retrospective age. Our society has already reached
the peak of real abstraction. We look backwards toward origins, reevaluating
the past, the present, and the path taken in between.

Steampunk matters, I think, because the tangible origins of
science fiction, of futurism, and of what has been constructed throughout the
twentieth century, is really the nineteenth century. Science and technology as
well as the projective imagination reached a critical point in that century,
and so, rather than with foraging, pastoral, agricultural, feudal, mercantile,
or emergent industrial society, the future originates in the nineteenth
century.

Steampunk, with its odd mixture of futurism and the quaint
and outdated Victorian aesthetic, combines and naturally merges with the parallel
genre of alternate history, which itself could be considered the fantasy
counterpart of the historical novel, which has also taken on a new flavor in
recent decades. And this retrospective consciousness is also a reflexive
consciousness. We are already aware of fundamentally changed assumptions in contrast
to those of the 1940s, ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, so when we look back more than a
century, we are not just trying to recreate a bygone era but to be aware of its
presuppositions, and from there postulate alternate histories.

(This retrospective consciousness enters into historical
Jewish fiction as well, which is where Esperanto now shows up as one of those
utopian possibilities of a long-lost era. But Esperanto and Volapük show up
outside of Jewish preoccupations as well.)

Of course, any subculture can end up as yet another thoughtless,
escapist refuge. There is no novelty left in subcultures, though of course
creativity can be found anywhere. Still, this awareness of the ability to
manipulate cultural codes has many twists. And so there is not only steampunk,
but there is black steampunk, as there is already Afrofuturism, another conceptual
category constructed many decades after its manifestations appeared in
practice.

Which brings me to black steampunk. Maybe, in the spirit of
retro, it should be called Negro steampunk.
In any case, here are some manifestations of said orientation.